Important Info Recycling Reduces the Cost of Processing Materials for Manufacturing On A Level Playing Field, Recycling Wins. Anti-recycling groups claim that recycling is more expensive than using virgin materials. To a degree, this is a valid point. Well-financed and politically influential virgin materials industries receive significant tax breaks and other subsidies for extraction of virgin materials while small, community-based recycling businesses struggle against these competitors. Thus it can be far cheaper to manufacture with virgin materials.
From a commentary by the Environmental Defense Fund, entitled "Anti-Recycling Myths," one finds that the greatest environmental benefits of recycling occur in reducing natural resource damage and pollution that arises when virgin raw materials are extracted for the manufacture of new products. Materials collected for recycling have already been refined and processed once, so manufacturing the second time around is usually much cleaner and less energy-intensive than the first time. For example, the environmental costs associated with processing virgin glass are $85 per ton, as opposed to $55 for a ton of recycled glass according to John Shall’s article "Does the Solid Waste Management Hierarchy Make Sense?". For the processing of virgin aluminum, the associated environmental costs are $1,933 per ton, while processing a ton of recycled aluminum results in $313 in environmental costs. As these figures show, on a level playing field, recycling wins.
In addition, the United States Environmental Protection Agency states that recycling is often the least expensive waste management method for cities and towns. Waste prevention and recycling lower costs to the community and create new jobs and tax revenues from increased business activities.
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Last updated: April 3, 2008
